Regents vote 5-4 to discontinue SJMC

April 14, 2011

A message to alumni and friends of the SJMC from Dean Paul S. Voakes:

Today the University’s Board of Regents voted 5-4 to discontinue our School, effective June 30. It’s sad to see the demise of any organization we’ve known and loved for years. But today’s vote also — finally — enables us to address the underlying purpose of this year’s trying experience. The University wants to discontinue the School so that it can create a journalism/mass communication program whose innovative and interdisciplinary approaches will propel us to national leadership in media education.

It’s a “demise” of the School only in the technical, administrative sense. We will become a department of journalism and mass communication. The resolution the Regents adopted today commits the university to continuing a degree program in journalism/mass communication on the Boulder campus, and in ways that will keep us “competitive for accreditation.”

The administration intends to keep our three most important resources intact – our budget, our student body and our faculty. This will enable us to continue our educational programs with no disruption to our students’ curricula.

The mid-range plan, in effect by 2012, is called Journalism Plus. It will offer our students a dual major, in journalism/mass communication and another discipline. I see this as a significant improvement, as our students will be able to graduate not only with a full range of media skills but with a good deal of expertise in a content area. (In the meantime, current students will finish out their degrees under the current curriculum.)

The long-term plan is even more promising. This year’s Exploratory Committee has recommended the creation of a school and research institute to address the confluence of information, communication, media and technology. I believe our JMC program is now being positioned to become a founding partner in that new enterprise. The teaching and study of media on this campus must remain responsive and relevant in a fast-changing media environment, and the new school will enable us to emerge as national leaders in a new kind of media education.

So we’ll raise a toast (or two) to our beloved SJMC, but in terms of what we deliver “on the ground,” I think the best is yet to come.

Please note: these programs are no longer available for application. The information on this website is intended for students who were accepted into JMC prior to the Board of Regents creating the new CMCI on June 27, 2014. Degrees and certificates on this website are not available for future students.More info: Current students (enrolled prior to Spring 2015):see the FAQ | Prospective students: see CMCI Academics for currently offered degrees.